Skip to content

If I Started YouTube While Working Full-Time, I’d Do This

2024-07-16 · Case study or coaching session · Ali, Hanil · recording, 25:15 · watch on YouTube

Topic: YouTube, writing online and creators (also: Goals, purpose and life design) · mode: Explanation and tutorial · tags: His own numbers, His medical past, His own products discussed

Answering Hanil, a vet who wants a YouTube channel alongside full-time work, Ali says not to start one for passive income (selling a service to businesses works far better), and, for a channel wanted for its own sake, sets an output goal of one video a week from four hours: outsource editing, outline with the triplet method and batch-film four videos on one Saturday a month.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Why this video: Ali grew his channel while working full-time

  • ★★ Ali started his YouTube channel in 2017 as a Cambridge medical student, then worked two years full-time as an NHS junior doctor, and grew the channel over three years from zero to about 1.3 million subscribers while working full-time. — 00:00:00 · University of Cambridge, NHS, YouTube

00:00:58 — Hanil's question: a vet working 10 to 6 who wants passive income from YouTube

  • ★★ Hanil, a veterinarian working 10 to 6 in a clinic who also does private cases afterwards, says both are active jobs that need his presence and energy, and he wants a more passive way of working. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Hanil says he does not get enough time during the day, and when he does have time he is so drained that he just wants to sleep. — 00:01:54

00:02:38 — Ali sums up the question: no time and no energy

  • ★★ Ali calls Hanil's idea of making content for vets or pet parents a very good thing to be thinking about, because it leans into his unfair advantages. — 00:03:19 · unfair advantage

00:03:44 — The right mindset: why start a channel; do not do YouTube for money, sell to businesses instead

  • ★★★ If the real goal of a YouTube channel is passive income, Ali advises against starting one: there are far more efficient ways to make passive income, and YouTube is too much of a slog. — 00:04:07 · passive income, YouTube
  • ★★★ To make money, Ali advises finding a business client and a service that solves a problem in its business, because businesses have large amounts of money and individuals do not; for Hanil, a veterinary practice or a pharmaceutical company that supplies vets. — 00:04:50
  • ★★ Making money from YouTube views through sponsorships and AdSense is not particularly passive, Ali says, because you still have to keep making the videos. — 00:04:50 · passive income, YouTube
  • ★★ A course is passive in theory, Ali says, because you make it once, perhaps over six months, and sell it over time, but it is a very long game with no guarantee that it works. — 00:05:27 · passive income
  • ★★ Success on YouTube is not guaranteed, Ali says: it takes expertise in the topic, being able to explain things on camera, and people connecting with your personality online. — 00:05:27 · YouTube
  • ★★ Ali reckons selling a service to a business in the vet sphere, then hiring people to make it roughly passive, is ten times more likely to work than Hanil starting a YouTube channel as a means to passive income. — 00:05:56 · YouTube, passive income
  • ★★★ To someone who wants a YouTube channel for its own sake, Ali would ask whether they would do it even if they knew they would never make money from it, and if so, why. — 00:06:25 · YouTube
  • ★★ Ali calls getting personal joy and satisfaction from the thought that your content could be useful to someone else the gold standard reason for doing YouTube. — 00:06:52 · YouTube

  • ★★★ The people who end up making money on YouTube are usually those who did not set out to, Ali says: it is very hard to make money on YouTube. — 00:06:52 · YouTube

    “The people who end up making money on YouTube usually are the ones who didn't set out to”

  • ★★★ Ali urges viewers to start a business selling to other businesses, and not to start a YouTube channel if their only reason is to make money. — 00:07:15 · YouTube

00:07:54 — The right approach: input, output and outcome goals; one video per week

  • ★★ Ali places goals on a spectrum of input, output and outcome goals: input goals are easier and more within your control, outcome goals harder and less within it. — 00:08:21
  • ★★ Ali does not like outcome goals because they are very hard; he thinks you can go for them when you are very experienced. — 00:09:19
  • ★★ Ali's business now has outcome goals: the goal is to grow the business to 10 million in revenue by the end of next year (2025). — 00:09:19
  • ★★★ With outcome goals a total beginner is more likely to lose motivation, so for a new channel Ali recommends starting with an output goal such as one video per week, which is more or less within your control. — 00:09:19
  • ★★ Ali breaks making a YouTube video into steps: the idea, then the title and thumbnail, writing, filming, editing and publishing. — 00:10:11 · YouTube

00:10:25 — Free Part-Time YouTuber crash course

00:10:46 — The process: four hours a week, outsourcing editing, time and money

  • ★★ After his years making videos beside full-time study and work, the pandemic came, Ali took a break and became a part-time YouTuber and full-time entrepreneur. — 00:11:25 · YouTube
  • ★★★ Ali's plan for a YouTube channel beside a full-time job is an input of four hours a week for an output of one video a week, though he thinks four hours may be a little unrealistic. (hedged) — 00:11:56 · YouTube
  • ★★ A livestream can produce a weekly video with no editing, Ali says, but the less time you put into videos, the lower their quality. — 00:12:24
  • ★★★ With only four hours a week for a YouTube channel, Ali would first cut out editing by outsourcing it. — 00:12:50 · YouTube
  • ★★ To find video editors, Ali points to Upwork, Fiverr and People Per Hour, and for really good editors to HeyFriends, a company he runs with friends. — 00:13:27
  • ★★ Ali's example: if Hanil makes $100 per private case and an edit costs him $30 or $40, he can do some extra cases to buy back his time by outsourcing editing. (hypothetical) — 00:13:57 · money buys back time
  • ★★★ Everything takes two resources, time and money, and Ali says they are interchangeable: you can spend time to save money or money to save time. — 00:14:30 · money buys back time
  • ★★ If you do not outsource your editing, Ali would budget maybe two hours a week for it. (hedged) — 00:14:30
  • ★★ Ali's editors take on average five days to edit one video for his main channel; when he edited his own videos it took him four to six hours a video. — 00:15:11
  • ★★ Ali edited his own videos for two whole years before he outsourced editing, which he calls dumb; he wishes someone had told him to outsource it. — 00:15:11
  • ★★ Even with editing outsourced, reviewing the edit with the editor takes about half an hour a week; Ali calls Frame.io really good software for giving feedback on edits. — 00:15:11
  • ★★ If you make content about things you are experienced in and know, filming a video of six to ten minutes should take no longer than 30 minutes, Ali says. — 00:15:55
  • ★★★ Ali's four-hour week for one video: two hours on the idea, title and thumbnail, one hour writing, 30 minutes filming, 30 minutes reviewing the outsourced edit, then publishing. — 00:16:21

00:16:51 — Idea, title and thumbnail; bullet points and the triplet method; filming

  • ★★ Coming up with video ideas fully involves target audience, value proposition, competitor analysis and unfair advantages, but for a beginner Ali says not to overthink it. — 00:16:51 · unfair advantage
  • ★★ Ali offers Hanil free access to his YouTube course if he reaches out to Ali's team. — 00:16:51 · Part-Time YouTuber Academy, YouTube
  • ★★ Ali suggests spending about an hour on Canva making a video's title and thumbnail. (hedged) — 00:16:51
  • ★★★ Ali advises not scripting videos word for word: a 10-minute video is about 1,500 words, which takes longer than an hour to write, so go with bullet points. — 00:17:27

  • ★★★ Ali's triplet, or three-by-three, method for writing a video: three main points, each with three sub-points, which takes him 10 to 20 minutes to put together. — 00:18:23

    “So this is the triplet method, the three by three method, three by three.”

  • ★ When filming, Ali advises hitting record, sharing from the heart and adding as much value to the audience as possible within the triplet method's points. — 00:18:59

00:19:29 — Batch filming on the first Saturday of the month; small pockets of time; Ali's one filming day

  • ★★ With no filming set-up at home in his doctor years, Ali took about an hour to set up for filming, so he realised he should film two, three or four videos in each session. — 00:20:01
  • ★★★ Ali advises a creator with a full-time job to make the first Saturday of every month a film day and film four videos on it. — 00:20:51
  • ★★★ Idea generation, titles, thumbnails and writing can all be done in small pockets of time, Ali says, since a full-time job has break times, lunch breaks and gaps such as waiting while a patient goes to radiology. — 00:21:17
  • ★★ Ali says batching the preparation and filming is how you become a part-time YouTuber: it is the exact method he used to grow his channel while working full-time as a doctor. — 00:22:15 · YouTube
  • ★★★ Even now Ali spends only one day a week on his YouTube channel, a filming day on which he aims to film at least one video. — 00:22:15 · YouTube
  • ★★ Ali spends only eight hours a week on his YouTube channel, now that he has a team to deal with the rest. — 00:22:45 · YouTube
  • ★★ Once the video process is streamlined it becomes clockwork, Ali says: you realise you can make one or even two videos a week, filming two in a row if the writing is an easy lift. — 00:23:14

00:23:43 — Do YouTube because you enjoy it, not for the money; sign-off

  • ★★★ If the content is valuable enough for the target audience and you spend enough time researching the idea, title and thumbnail, which is why Ali gives them half the time, things will probably work out on YouTube, though it is not a guaranteed game. (hedged) — 00:23:43 · YouTube
  • ★★★ Ali has enough money now and does not need to make YouTube videos, but makes them because it is what he would do anyway and he enjoys the process of teaching. — 00:23:43 · YouTube
  • ★★ Ali wants a creator to do YouTube because they enjoy it and see value in the service they offer; doing that grows the channel, which is eventually monetised through AdSense and can later add products. — 00:24:21 · YouTube

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Hanil · passive income · triplet method · YouTube

Also: Projects: Part-Time YouTuber Academy

Organizations: Fiverr · HeyFriends · NHS · People Per Hour · University of Cambridge · Upwork

Concepts: batching · get going, get good, get smart · money buys back time · process goals · unfair advantage

Places: India

Products: Canva · Dropbox · Frame.io · Google Drive · YouTube AdSense

Replies to

← Previous: How to Avoid Burnout · Next → How To Find Your Life's Purpose